Bastille

Title:

Date:

Type:

Overview

Strap in and prepare for take-off as we transport you on a mind-bending visual journey, through a Saul Bass inspired graphical universe, in this animated music video for Bastille.

Story

When Nice & Polite took inspiration from the 1960’s classic poster styles of Saul Bass, and then asked us to put a modern twist on it in an animated music video for Bastille, we got very excited.

They wanted to create a contemporary and credible music video animation for Bastille’s new single ‘Hangin’, with the concept of a man falling through a hypnotic animated space, brought to life using modern animation and illustrative techniques.

The overall aesthetic of the piece originally had character designed up in silhouette form, similar to that seen in Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’ posters and the opening credits of ‘Mad Men’.

Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’ movie poster

Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’ movie poster

‘The Maze Runner’ movie poster

‘The Maze Runner’ movie poster

Nice & Polite then went on to describe the animation of the character and provided concepts and storyboards that showed us the graphical and illustrative approach they were looking for.

They wanted to stick to the red, black and white colour palette, which they said “would breathe a breath of freshness to the video”.

Animated music video concept

Animated music video concept

Animated music video storyboards

Animated music video storyboards

Graphical line drawings, geometric shapes, patterns, and prints would be the key backdrop that the animated character would constantly be falling through. The aesthetic of these being slightly distressed to mimic that of screen printed textures.

The edit would play out from different perspectives of the character falling – with the backdrop acting like a parallax, that warps and changes perspective throughout, which would act like a hypnotic, optical illusion style anchor for the video.

Falling past a wall of moving lines

Falling past a wall of moving lines

Falling through a field of leaves

Falling through a field of leaves

Falling passed animated geometric patterns

Falling passed animated geometric patterns

Falling passed a spiral that turns into a staircase

Falling passed a spiral that turns into a staircase

Falling through a maze

Falling through a maze

leaves blow the character away

leaves blow the character away

A hand comes and bursts his bubble

A hand comes and bursts his bubble

A graphical representation of a windy city

A graphical representation of a windy city

Skills

Background designs

The background graphics were made by London based artist and designer Kraggy who provided us with multi-layered graphics ready for animation in After Effects.

Character animation

Our frame-by-frame character animation tests proved long and laborious. Time was not on our side so we used a 3D character that was ready for animation instead.

Pace

The pacing of the video was key – with the pace of the video building and dipping with the music – making sure the attention of the viewer was kept throughout.

Shall we get started?

Have you seen enough? Are you ready for us to help bring your story to life? To help it reach more people than words ever could? And make an exciting visual experience that's easy to understand and difficult to forget?